Monday, June 22, 2015

At our June 18 meeting, the Club recognized the two recipients of the Von J. Hinton Memorial Citizenship Award. Mikayla Payne from Pickens High School and Chelsea Waters from Mountain Education Charter High School accepted their awards with much gratitude and spoke to the Club about their future plans.

Monday, June 15, 2015

At the Optimist Club of Jasper meeting on June 4, the Jerry Appleton Team Award was presented to Team Weaver for their participation in the Flapjack 5K Race held end of April. This award was renamed in recognition of Jerry Appleton's participation and teamwork in the club. He was always willing to get involved and worked on every event to make it happen. The skillet award was presented to Judge Brenda Weaver by Sue Appleton.

Also at this same meeting, Steve Greenwell, president of Habitat for Humanity of Pickens County, provided the members an overview of the work that Habitat has done in our community over the years. He also spoke about the new initiative called "New Hope Acres" which Habitat is developing as a place for additional Habitat homes to be built. Steve addressed the myth that Habitat homes are "free. Habitat for Humanity offers homeownership opportunities to families who are unable to obtain conventional house financing. Generally this includes those whose income is 30 to 50 percent of the area's median income. In most cases, prospective Habitat homeowner families make a down payment. Additionally, they contribute several hundred hours of "sweat equity" on the construction of their home or someone else's home. Because Habitat houses are built using donations of land, materials and labor, mortgage payments are kept affordable.

The Optimist Club of Jasper meets the 1st and 3rd Thursday mornings of most months at 7:00 AM at Last Catch Seafood Restaurant on E. Church Street. No meeting on July 2nd. To learn more about this civic organization, go to the club website at www.jasperoptimist.blogspot.com Guests and new members welcome!

Interested in visiting or joining?

Guests and new members always! Please contact David Slade at daveslade@tds.net for more information.

About the club

The Optimist Club of Jasper was formed in 1981 and over the past 30 years has been part of the local community helping to bring out the best in Pickens County Kids. We hold 3 major fundraisers a year: pecan sale in November/December , 5K Flapjack Run in April and Annual Scholarship Golf tournament in May. All money raised goes back into the community to help our youth.